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‘This shouldn’t be normal’: developers speak out about bigotry on Steam, the world’s biggest PC gaming storefront (www.theguardian.com)
submitted 2 days ago by RubberDuck@lemmy.world to c/games@lemmy.world
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[-] dupelet_comments@piefed.social 3 points 1 day ago

you can report them if they are inappropriate.

Which is what the entire article is about, reports being ineffective...

[-] Jakeroxs@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 day ago

Its not, its about Valve not proactively moderating for the devs.

[-] Aielman15@lemmy.world 0 points 1 day ago

“I’m not new to online harassment,” says designer Nathalie Lawhead, who spent two years trying to get reviews removed from their games’ pages. Both reference allegations of sexual assault that Lawhead made in 2019. “I assumed reporting Steam abuse might have its own issues. But when people suggested that I open a ticket, I did have hope that this would be the way to get it resolved.”

One of the reviews, published in 2023, read, “cringe game, made by a liar”. The other, a review of Lawhead’s game Blue Suburbia posted in 2024, said: “A women [sic] who seeks to destroy other’s [sic] career made this. It’s very poorly put together. She also probably has dual Israeli citizenship with how pointy her nose is.”

Despite Steam’s code of online conduct and community guidelines prohibiting “abusive language or insults”, public accusations or “discrimination”, moderators initially cleared both reviews after Lawhead reported them.

What's with Lemmy users and lying and bending backwards to shield poor indie dev company Valve from harassment? Does Gabe's dick taste that good?

this post was submitted on 16 Feb 2026
233 points (86.5% liked)

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